topic Re: GPU not funtioning correctly in ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)

GPU not funtioning correctly

rf1nley — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:04:20 GMT

I have a DL360 G4 and installed a nVidia GT430, this one to be exact. The graphics card has never functioned correctly. It does work, ie. I do have graphics at a resolution beyond the capability of the onboard graphics, but every time I try to run anything with modern graphics the card overheats and the computer reboots immediately. I have found this to be true across OS's as I have tried with Windows and Linux. I am currently running Ubuntu with nVidia driver ver. 295.33.

I am trying to use this box for seti@home type work but recieve nothing but "computation errors". Can anybody explain to me what the problem may be? I feel like it has something to do with the type of slot the card is plugged into. I have also pitched this question in the nVidia and SETI@home forums. Any input would be appreciated. I have given up hope that the card will function as well as I had initially hoped. I am simply trying to understand what is going on.

Re: GPU not funtioning correctly

Oscar A. Perez — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:01:59 GMT

That is a passively cooled video card. I think your card is overheating because its heaksink wasn't designed for 1U chassis where air flow can only go from front to back.

Re: GPU not funtioning correctly

rf1nley — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:27:41 GMT

Ok, thanks. I'll work on rigging up a cooling system for it.

Re: GPU not funtioning correctly

rf1nley — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:57:06 GMT

Ok, I have added a fan to the card. I had a fan laying around. The card is not overheating. I started my nVidia control panel, where I can monitor the GPU temp, and started Google Earth. I told Google to zoom to Chicago (3D buildings), the card shut the computer down pretty quick and never exceeded 39 degrees Celsius. It's threshold is up around 95 degrees Celsius I'm told by someone over in the nVidia forums.

Several people have suggested to me that this my be a power problem. How much power is available to the card from the slot? Where can I find this information? Is it something that I can adjust? I am also working on determining how much power the card draws. Does this sound like a likely cause of my problem? I had a hard time accepting it at first. I was told that the card needs a 300 watt PSU. Having 460 watts, I figured it was not the issue. But now that I have ruled out overheating, I am wondering how the power is distributed.

Re: GPU not funtioning correctly

Oscar A. Perez — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:17:31 GMT

The specsheet of that card shows 56-watt max power consumption. http://www.zotacusa.com/specsheet/ZT-40605-10L.pdf

The DL360 G4 server is PCI 2.2 compliant and according to PCI revision 2.2, the maximum power you can get from a PCI slot (total power from both 3.3V and 5.0V) is 25-watts.

Re: GPU not funtioning correctly

rf1nley — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:35:09 GMT

Wow! That was a fantastic answer. Thank you. It has been suggested that I have a bad card. I would have been really upset if I bought another one. It still works, I just can't work it hard.

Re: GPU not funtioning correctly

rf1nley — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:41:37 GMT

Umm..

So if "the maximum power you can get from a PCI slot (total power from both 3.3V and 5.0V) is 25-watts", why would someone manufacture a card that uses 56 watts?

Re: GPU not funtioning correctly

Matti_Kurkela — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 07:22:37 GMT

Modern high-performance GPUs often have an extra power input connector for a direct power feed from the system power supply. The ATX12V v2.1 power supply standard specifies a 6-pin connector that can deliver up to 75 watts to the GPU. A later version of the standard specifies a 8-pin version of that connector, which can deliver up to 150 watts.

Looking at the spec sheet linked by Oscar A. Perez, there is a picture of the rear side of the card in the "Dimensions" paragraph. At the upper left corner, it looks like there is a rectangular arrangement of six solder points - exactly what I would expect to see if the card had a 6-pin power input connector at that corner.

Sometimes there will be a power cable adapter bundled with such a card, like this:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html#pciexpress

But in a rack-mount server like DL360, there may not be any available 4-pin Molex power connectors for such an adapter. The "slim" 1U rack-mount servers like your DL360 are designed exclusively for datacenter work: to allow the installation of as many servers as possible per unit of rack space, while still allowing the use of standard PCI/PCI-X/PCIe add-on cards (mainly for NICs, HBAs and other I/O cards).

In a 1U server, cooling a high-wattage add-on card may be problematic because there is simply not enough space to push air through, so these kinds of servers may be designed with less power available for add-ons than in an average tower-case PC - you cannot just plug in any PCI card without checking its specifications and expect it to work without issues.

Re: GPU not funtioning correctly

rf1nley — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:40:19 GMT

What I am hearing from several places is that a PCI-X slot is not made to run graphics cards. I am determined though, and wonder what if I installed one of these: Link . Obviously the card that we have been discussing would not work, but would a regular PCI express card like: This one work?